Blank Canvas
by Zxel
Summary: Axel saw him every day. The blonde boy was absolutely flawless. And Axel was going to capture his image with paint if it killed him. Which, if he kept setting up shop outside of Tifa's cafe, might have been a very real possibility. [Akuroku][Oneshot]


**Blank Canvas**

Axel was fond of peaceful places. He had grown up in a rather backwater town where everyone knew everyone and there were miles of empty space. His house had been large, he'd had no siblings, and the sanctity of his room had almost never been disturbed by his mother. In all his years of high school, he'd had but one girlfriend who hadn't lasted a week because she refused to respect his personal space. It wasn't that he was unfriendly, in fact, he'd had a tight group of friends all the way through school, and he was said to be the funniest of them, he just enjoyed having peace and quiet every so often.

Axel hated the city. It was crowded and noisy and he rarely got sleep in his tiny apartment between the sound of the streets below him and the obscenely loud neighbors beyond his very, very thin walls. But his college was good and, more importantly, the most affordable of his options. Not that it made it affordable at all, really, but his mother was too pleased with him actually attending college to care how much it cost.

And at least the city had something going for it: it had the most beautiful views. And since Axel made alot of his living money from selling paintings while his family supported him as best they could, it was really the ideal place to be.

Of course, being splattered with muddy water spraying out from under someone's tires on his way to Tifa's that Wednesday morning did very little to raise his opinion of the people in this place. He cursed the day for being so cold and also the fates for telling him to wear that new green sweater today as he elbowed his way into the Lockheart Cafe, where Cid Highwind greeted him fondly.

"Hey, you bum, get out of my cafe."

"Hiya, Cid. I'll have the usual this lovely morning, thanks."

Cid laughed and made his way from behind the counter, a cup in one hand and a brown-stained rag in the other. When Axel took a seat at his table in the corner, Cid sat with him, despite the complaints of the customers in line at the counter. "I already had it made. But you're a little late this morning, so it's a bit cold."

Axel frowned. "I _hate_ cold coffee."

"Well, get the hell over it." Cid told him impassively, tucking the dirty rag into his belt. Axel took a sip of his coffee and tried not to blanch. "You're lookin' thinner every day, kid."

"I occasionally read Cosmo." Axel replied. "Being skinny makes me feel pretty."

"I don't doubt that," Cid said, waving cheerfully at Tifa Lockheart as she emerged from the back of the store only to be bombarded by the line of angry people Cid had so thoughtfully left. Tifa scowled at him. "Seriously, though. Are you low on cash again?"

"Of course not." The redhead lied from behind his coffee cup. "And even if I was, I'd just bum money off of mom."

"No you wouldn't. I've never known you to ask anyone fer help, you stubborn ass."

"I'm fine." Axel said. "...Say Cid, I gotta get going. Do you think that you could put a hold on-"

"Just take the damn coffee an' go."

"Right. I'll pay you back tomorrow, I just don't have my wallet on me. Later."

Cid merely shook his head as Axel downed the coffee and strode out of the cafe.

"You're paying for that coffee, Cid." Miss Lockheart said.

-----

The truth was, Axel was flat broke at this point. It wasn't because he had blown all his money or anything, he just hadn't sold a single painting in almost a week. Not because they weren't good, either, but because...

_Damn it._

Axel sighed and leaned against the wall of the cafe, canvases, cheap easel, and a bag full of brushes and acryllics under his arms, to wait. It didn't take long and, if his watch was still correct, it was close to the same time as always. The blonde boy came walking slowly up the street, his sneakers splashing in the shallow puddles left from last night's rainstorm and his hands shoved into the pockets of his jacket. Axel unfolded his easel and set it down in front of him. The blonde boy ran a hand through his messy hair and glanced upwards at the sky. Axel selected a blank canvas from the stack he had brought and placed it on the easel. The blonde boy parted his lips to sigh and his hand returned to the pocket of his jacket as he drew nearer. Axel dug through his bag of brushes and paints until he found the brushes and colors he thought he would need.

The blonde boy strode past him, completely ignoring him, not even aware that Axel existed. The blonde seemed upset today, but that didn't make Axel want to paint him any less. In fact, it was the most gorgeous expression he had ever seen on a human being in his life. In Axel's opinion, this kid made city life entirely tolerable.

But when Axel painted it, when he painstakingly went over every detail of the boy's face, spiked hair, and checkered clothing, it never turned out right. Always, _always_ there was something missing. The one most beautiful thing in the city, the only thing he wanted to paint now, and he couldn't do it right.

Frustrated and realizing, when he tore his eyes off of the canvas, that he had wasted half of the day on the imperfect painting, Axel covered his face with his hands and groaned. He was getting absolutely nowhere. "It shouldn't be this hard!"

A mother who had been pushing a stroller past him suddenly picked up her pace.

Axel sighed, cleaned off his brushes and packed up his things. He had a class that afternoon and he already knew he was going to be late.

And he had to pick up some more canvas with his non-existent money before tomorrow. The ones he had were covered in images of that boy who passed him every day in the street. He had yet to capture that vision with paintbrushes and acryllics, but he was damn sure not giving up until he had.

-----

The next day it rained, hard, and Axel, who had no umbrella of which to speak, hid out with his art supplies in Tifa's cafe. Cid wasn't there on Thursdays, and Axel had to deal with Tifa instead. Tifa was gorgeous, but very scary. Fortunately, with Axel looking like a drowned kitten, his bright hair flattened by the rain and water dripping off of his nose, Tifa seemed to feel like taking pity on him that morning.

"Axel. You'll be wanting the usual, right?" She asked, giving him a nice view of the curve of her breast as she leaned across the counter. Axel tried not to stare, seeing as how this kindness was very rare already.

"Uh. No, not today. The rain woke me up enough." It was half a lie. In reality, he just knew that Tifa would never let him slide without paying for the coffee.

"Alright then," The brunette said, turning breifly to speak with a customer - a pretty blonde girl who seemed embarrassed just to be ordering a sandwich. She looked about the age of the spiky-haired boy, Axel thought. Argh. Tifa didn't question Axel about why he suddenly slammed his head into her counter, but frowned at him because it startled the young girl quite a bit and she ran off in the middle of her 'thank you'.

"Why are you so mopey?"

"'M not mopey." Axel said decidedly, and it earned him a whack on the head. He didn't bother to respond. Rain made him feel too miserable to fight with Tifa. Tifa gave him a concerned look and, to Axel's immense surprise, allowed him to have a free roast beef sandwich.

"Why did you even come down today, Axel?" Tifa asked him seriously, her eyes falling on his bag of supplies.

Axel took a generous bite from his miracle sandwich. "I don't know, maybe I just wanted to see your smiling face."

Tifa put her hands on her hips, the way she did when she was being completely no-nonsense. It was fair warning. "Cute. I meant why did you come out at all? All you do is sit on the corner and paint when you come here, and I don't mind it, but you can't paint while it's raining."

"..." Axel looked out the window as though he had never seen rain before in his life. She was right. He couldn't even paint, hell, he hadn't even bought new canvases yet, so even if it wasn't raining he wouldn't be able to accomplish anything. So why the _hell_ was he... ?

Axel thought of the blonde boy and his checkered jacket, and about how he spent every moment puzzling over how he could go about getting to know that damn, pretty blonde boy he saw walking up the street every day. About how he obsessed over somehow recreating that perfection. Because to him, the boy seemed flawless...

And then Axel realized that he was in trouble.

-----

That day, after the realization that he was probably in love with this complete stranger, Axel didn't see blonde boy come walking up the street. Despite Tifa's protests at his departure ("Hey, at least wait until it calms down!"), Axel waited for almost half an hour, the rain soaking through his clothes and making him shiver with the cold, before Tifa forced him to come inside and have some coffee. She was also done playing nice.

"I don't know what the hell you're doing out there in the freezing rain, you completely unproductive jackass, but do you know how bad a dead body outside my cafe would be for business?"

"Sorry." Axel said, feeling more depressed than he had any right to be. Maybe the blonde kid moved. Maybe he got run over on the way up the street. Axel felt the ridiculous urge to walk down a few blocks and look for the corpse. Then he felt more miserable because he clearly had a problem. "I think I'm a pervert, Tifa."

"...If I catch you looking at my boobs, I'm going to pour hot coffee on you."

"Noted." Axel said, and then he got up, retrieved his bag from under the counter, and walked back out into the rain. This time, Tifa didn't try to stop him.

The blonde boy was nowhere to be seen, but the rain had calmed down considerably. Axel had the gloomy thought that perhaps the boy had walked right by while he was in Lockheart Cafe. Stupid Tifa. He kicked at a puddle, frowning at the ripples it caused, and then decided to give up and go home.

Maybe it was karma for staring at Tifa's boobs, maybe it was the utter lack of coordination on Axel's part, or maybe it was just that he had kicked a particularly vengeful puddle, but Axel stumbled at the corner of the street and fell face first into the puddle of muddy water, along with the stack of canvases that had the blonde boy painted on them. Axel wondered if maybe the whole day had been a dream - it certainly explained Tifa's kindness - and if now he was going to have one of those dream falls that jerked at his stomach and woke him up.

That didn't happen. He considered staying facedown in this puddle until he died anyway, but he figured Tifa would hunt down his ghost and make his afterlife miserable for making her cafe less aesthetic. He groaned and pulled himself up, the muddy water pouring from his clothing as he did so. Feeling very filthy, he began to gather his mostly ruined paintings into his arms. Damn his bad luck. Damn it to hell.

He had just reached for yesterday's painting - the one where the blonde was pouting and staring wistfully at the sky - when another hand closed around it and pulled it from the water. Axel was surprised. It wasn't often that someone was so curteous to a stranger in this city.

"Thanks." He muttered, fishing the remaining paintings from the puddle.

"These are really beautiful." Said the person who had helped him. Axel chose to ignore that. They had no idea. No idea how beautiful the blonde was, or how his paintings were riddled with faults. Or how sometimes he worked so hard on the art that he got headaches and his fingers shook so badly that he had to stop.

"So," Said the stranger. "Why me?"

Axel froze. Went so stiff it actually hurt his spine. Was that...? He licked his lips, which were suddenly dry, and looked up.

_Shit._

"I... I m-mean..." What had the boy asked? Why him? Wasn't it obvious? "...You're perfect."

A blush spread across the young man's face. Axel had never seen that before, and he certainly wasn't going to forget it. It was incredibly becoming. "Thank you.. I guess. I uh... You know, I noticed that you didn't have an umbrella. And I was just heading to the cafe. Have... have you eaten?"

Axel stared silently for so long that the boy began to squirm uncomfortably under his gaze. He cleared his throat. "No. I haven't eaten yet."

So he lied. Roast beef wasn't very filling anyway.

"Well then, do you want to come in with me?" The boy asked. "Oh. I'm Roxas, by the way."

"Roxas." Axel parroted. Even his name sounded nice. "I'm Axel. And I'd really like that."

Tifa, who had given Axel nothing but concerned looks since that morning, raised her eyebrows and graced him with a really suggestive-looking smirk when he came in with Roxas at his side, but Axel didn't give a damn.

-----

Every day after that, even though it inevitably made him late for class on Wednesdays, Axel ate lunch with Roxas at Lockheart Cafe and ignored Cid's inneundo-laced commentary and Tifa's hardly-concealed laughter. And even though Axel's ability to focus wasn't improved in the least by it, he and Roxas lived happily ever after.

Got it memorized?


End file.
